Death Knows No Mercy
by TheAnimeWriterLover
Summary: They all saw a monster. Not one of them bothered to figure out what made him into one. He lost his family and best friends, but old wounds deepened at the death of the last person that cared for the real him. She, who accepted him and bit by bit returned whatever humanity he had left. She, who has died by associating with him. They wanted a monster? Now, they were going to get one.


**Challenge: There is no challenge. I randomly was browsing the internet at Danny Phantom stuff and found interesting comics about Dan. I read through them and thought: "Hey, why not write a story for this guy?" So I did. This story is _really_ short in comparison to my other one-shots, but I hope you guys still enjoy this.**

 **A/N: This is before "The Ultimate Enemy"**

Daniel Fenton, a name that no longer held any meaning. He has not been called by it since Vlad Masters separated his ghost from his human self. For the next few years, as he learned to grow stronger, he never came up with a new name. To him, all that mattered was to grow stronger and hurt his past enemies. He had no interest in going after the human race, aside from spreading small havoc. To them, it meant destructions of buildings, but nobody got killed. To him, it was to test out his powers in the human realm more than anything else.

He wasn't sure how he met her, a young woman a few months younger than him. Ruby was her name. He never learned her last name, as she never said it. Like him, she has lost her family, only to war. She didn't have siblings, but her parents were part of the army. After they died, all she had to her name were their belongings. Her last name got stolen from her because her relatives saw her as useless and ungrateful. She ran away from home at age 16 and lived at the woods ever since. Her knowledge of the wild allowed her to survive and live in peace. The closest place habitable by humans was a small village up north. She got the seeds from there, stolen, so to grow her own garden.

He didn't know why he bothered at the time to help her build her small, one room wooden house. He was only 16, almost 17, at the time that they met. It could be pity, when he saw how she lived in a cave. It was only a few years since he murdered his human self and a little over that since he was a hero. So, could it be because of that? Pity and old habits that refused to die? He had his hero moments, but they grew fewer and fewer every day. If anything, his keeping the humans and his enemies alive were his last heroic deeds.

Yet, when he thought about it, she didn't appear frightened of his appearance. He wondered if she was from the same town as him, but dismissed it for two reasons. She was too far away from Amity Park to make the journey on foot. And she made a comment about his skin, eyes and ears, not making a connection with him being a ghost. Her first guess was a vampire, much to his annoyance. She never was into the supernatural and took a random guess. All she knew was that he was some sort of supernatural creature, not that she cared. She explained that from the shitty life she led at the moment, she could care less if he killed her.

So, why didn't he kill her?

These questions always made him wonder. But he never spoke a word to her for a long time. The only time he said anything, was when she asked for his name, few months after they met. He didn't answer her right away. It took him a full day to remember his old name. His enemies called him Phantom, but never his first name. He even forgot about the letter D on the front of his uniform until he walked next to a pond and saw his reflection. But he had to change his name. If he said his name, Danny Fenton, then it'd bring back the pain that still refused to leave.

"Dan"

He answered with a surprising deep voice. Ruby looked up from her activity of chopping wood with surprise green eyes.

"What?"

She asked. He repeated:

"My name is Dan"

"Well, nice to meet you Dan." She replied with a big grin. "Good to know you can talk."

It broke the ice. From that point on, she did a lot of things to make him talk more. Ruby tried to guess what supernatural being he was on many occasions.

"You're not a werewolf, since the full moon came and went. I haven't heard any howling, and you haven't changed to a wolf. Still, you're too huge for a normal person."

"There's no fucking way you're a fairy. You'd have wings and shit, and a wand, and be going around granting wishes to Cinderella. Wait, I'm thinking Fairy Godmother, but you're a guy, so I guess Fairy Godfather? Anyways, you're too big to be a fairy. Either that or I read too much Thumbelina."

"You're not a wizard, are you? You know, like from Harry Potter, with wands and flying broomsticks. Wait, you don't have a Dark Lord after you, do you?"

"Shit, I don't know what else you can be. I'm still thinking you're a vampire because of those eyes and fangs. Wait, do you know Dracula by any chance?"

Really, Dan didn't know why he bothered to return to her. But some of the comments made him grin in genuine, something he hasn't done in years. Whenever he grinned _and_ she caught it, Ruby always exclaimed with an overdramatic gasp.

"Look at that, the boy can smile."

"I am _not_ a boy."

He'd reply to her with an intense glare, which had no effect on her. She'd only smile and laugh.

"And he can talk." Her smile softened as she spoke. "You should smile more, it suits you."

After months of being around her, he grew used to the blonde's comments on this or that. Sometimes she made a comment about him or herself. During those random topics, he learned that she loved space. He also learned that she missed her old telescope that her father got for her 8th birthday. Her family took it away from her and sold it after her parents died when she was 12. They said that she needed to earn her keep. In truth, she knew that they sold it. It was signed by a famous and her favourite astronaut and thus was worth a fortune. The man died a year after he signed the telescope. But the cruel actions didn't kill her love for the subject. She knew many stories about the stars and could point them out. She had wistful dreams of discovering things in space and seeing the true beauty that Earth hid behind its atmosphere.

Dan felt like a little humanity returned, bit by bit, the more he spent time with her. She'd force him to sit with her around a fire, where she told him myths and legends about constellations. He set in silence and listened. It almost brought him comfort, odd enough. When the days grew cold, Ruby had him sleep inside the house. He tended to sleep in the trees, which he found were quite comfortable. He told her that the cold didn't bother him, but she didn't take a 'no' for an answer. Ruby never pushed him to tell her about his past or what he was. Not even the nights when he had nightmares about the deaths. Almost like she knew when he had nightmares, she woke him up before they went too far. They took small walks of silence, with her stroking his arm in an attempt to comfort him. If it was somebody else, he may as well have killed them for taking pity on him. But he couldn't, not when it was her.

Ruby did something that nobody else ever did. She cared for him, no matter if he was human or not. She really was a gem among the rubble. He was, dare he say it, in love with her? Yes, it had to be it. This old feeling that he hasn't felt since Sam died returned, but only in a more complicated form. Yet, he couldn't say anything. It didn't matter the many times he noticed her throwing glances at his direction. The soft whispers of proclaimed love said when she thought he was sleep. How she became flustered at some things that he did. It made him want to experience these new and old feelings with her. But he wished to keep their relationship as friendship. He was a ghost, the most wanted being in both the land of the living and the dead. On a more basic thought, he didn't know if a ghost and human could even have a relationship. No, it was for the best that he'd keep his mouth zipped, even if it hurt the both of them. He could not afford to appear weak in front of his enemies and it was for her safety. If they ever find out about her, he'd kill them.

At the age of 20, 6 years of destruction and leaving injured people behind had karma come to bite him in the ass.

It was official. He saw it everywhere he went. The governments around the world have declared a union law. _Anyone_ that associated with Dan Phantom was to be put to death. There were even wanted posters printed out with a recent photo of him. Dan didn't believe that they'd go farther than a town, so he didn't worry too much about Ruby being found. Why should the governments bother with villages who kept to themselves?

He underestimated them.

After a recent visit to the ghost zone, Dan returned to the wooden house deep inside the forest. He was gone for a week, as the fight lasted for most of that time. The ghosts decided to gang up on him together, thinking that they'd win. They were nothing more than fools, half destroyed while the other was left too injured to move. His recent new skills came in handy. If not, then the fight might have lasted an extra few days.

Dan stopped in midflight. He listened to the forest and found that it was dead silent. _It's too quiet_ , he realized. A feeling sank in his guts, telling him that something was wrong. He flew as fast as he could back to the house, and arrived in only a few minutes. He landed and ran to the front door, which was busted open. The first thing that hit his nose when he took a step in was metal. The tall ghost figure froze at the scene in front of him. It looked like a slaughterhouse. Blood was everywhere and most of all, underneath a familiar figure on the floor. The once upon a time fair skin turned pale as the snow. Green eyes filled with life, care and laughter stared at him with a blank expression. Yellow hair as bright as the sun was tainted with redness.

"No" Dan whispered. His feet moved with a mind of their own. They felt heavy and collapsed into the red pool right next to the body. "Ruby"

His arms shook as he pulled her to his chest. His eyes hovered over her torso which was covered with bullet holes. A feeling of pain spread through his being when he once more looked into her dead eyes. It was unnatural for them to look anything but full of emotions. Unable to look into them anymore, he brought a hand up to close them. He brought the body closer to his and hugged her in a death-like grip.

The lifeline to his sanity, the one person that actually cared for him in a level no other did, got killed. And it's all because of him. Something snapped inside of him.

"No" Dan's blue fire-like hair spread from his head down his body. " _No_ " His eyes glowed red. " _NO_ "

He screamed to the heavens with an inhuman howl. The whole house got engulfed with blue fire. His anger and pain made it grow and grow, to the point that the trees nearby got caught with the blue fire too. The house was no longer visible. Out of the flames walked out a silhouette. Hands clenched into tight fists. Red eyes glowed with nothing but hatred in them. The figure stood tall with an intimidating inhumane growl.

"They want a monster. I will give it to them."


End file.
